Twitter priced its initial public offering above its expected range to raise at least $1.8 billion, in a sign of strong investor demand.

The company priced 70 million shares at $26. The IPO values Twitter at $14.1 billion, with the potential to reach $14.4 billion if underwriters exercise an over-allotment option, as they are widely expected to. That would allow Twitter to raise $2.1 billion, making it the second largest Internet offering in the U.S. behind Facebook's $16 billion IPO last year.

The focus now turns to how Twitter stock will fare on Thursday.

Compared to Facebook's IPO last May, Twitter priced shares more conservatively and chose to list on the New York Stock Exchange rather than the Nasdaq.

Twitter generates relatively little revenue per user compared with Facebook, while the majority of its users are located outside the U.S. in countries such as Indonesia or Brazil, which are less lucrative digital advertising markets.

Twitter's third-quarter revenue more than doubled to $168.6 million, but net losses widened to $64.6 million from $21.6 million a year earlier.

Twitter said on Monday that it had received a letter from IBM accusing the social media company of infringing on at least three U.S. patents.